The present invention relates to gaming machines of the type arranged to play a game of poker and in particular the invention provides an improvement to a game played on such a machine.
Players who regularly play gaming machines quickly tire of particular games and therefore it is necessary for manufacturers of these machines to come up with innovative game features that add interest to the games provided on such machines in order to keep the players amused and therefore willing to continue playing the game.
Gaming or poker machines have been well known in the state of New South Wales for many years and have more recently gained considerable popularity throughout Australia, with quite substantial amounts of money wagered on these machines. There is a growing tendency for State Governments to legalise the use of gaming machines by licensing operators, with resulting revenue gains through licence fees and taxation of monies invested. The licensed operation of gaming machines is the subject of State legislation and regulation. This regulation almost always dictates a minimum percentage payout for a gaming machine. For example, a minimum of 85% of monies invested must be returned as winnings, and manufacturers of gaming machines therefore must design their machines around these regulatory controls.
With the growth that has occurred in the gaming machine market there is intense competition between manufacturers to supply the various existing and new venues. When selecting a supplier of gaming machines, the operator of a venue will often pay close attention to the popularity of various games with their patrons. Therefore, gaming machine manufacturers are keen to devise games which are popular with players, as a mechanism for improving sales.
Many various strategies have been tried in the past to make games more enticing to players, including the commonly known double-up feature, whereby, if a player wins a particular game, they can then risk the winnings of that game in a double-or-nothing mode in which they gamble on a subsequent, and often different, game such as whether a red or black card will be the next card drawn.
Other techniques adopted in the past have been to provide complexity in the numbering and combinations of indicia which would result in a win, thereby hoping to convince the player that there is a greater chance of winning and to keep their interest in a particular game.
The present invention provides a game feature in which in response to a tigger condition a wild card substitutes for a symbol in the outcome and a randomly generated number is used to multiply a prize awarded for winning combinations created while the wild card is displayed.
The present invention consists in a gaming machine having display means, and game control means arranged to control images displayed on the display means, the game control means being arranged to play a game wherein a plurality of symbols are randomly selected and displayed on the display means and, if a winning combination results, the machine pays a prize, the game being characterised in that upon the occurrence of a predetermined triggering event, a wild card symbol is displayed in at least one display location, a prize being awarded for winning combinations formed with the wild card symbol when the wild card symbol is displayed, the wild card symbol having associated with it a prize multiplier display icon indicating a value of a randomly selected integer within a predetermined range and the prize awarded for the combination formed with the wild card symbol being equal to a predetermined prize for the combination multiplied by the randomly selected integer value.
Preferably, the wild card symbol contains one or more dice and the randomly selected integer is indicated as the total value displayed on the dice. In one preferred embodiment, a single die is displayed and the predetermined range for the integer value is 1-6. In another embodiment, two dice are displayed and the integer range is 1-6n. In another embodiment, two dice are displayed and the integer range is 2-12. In yet another embodiment, the number of dice is also variable such that the integer range is 1-6n where n is the maximum number of dice.
In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, the wild card symbol is displayed in a first display location, and then progressively moved to each of a predetermined number of display locations, a prize being awarded for winning combinations formed with the wild card symbol for each location in which the wild card symbol is displayed.
In the preferred embodiment, the wild card symbol is one or more dice which travelled from location to location in the display by an animated rolling motion.
The present invention is applicable to video gaming machines of the traditional poker machine style (also known as slot machines or fruit machines) in which the display means comprises a video simulation of a set of rotatable reels, each carrying a plurality of symbols. The invention is equally applicable to video draw poker machines in which a poker hand is displayed on the screen, the cards of the hand being selected from a standard 52 or 53 card deck and to keno and bingo machines in which a ball with a wildcard value is displayed and its occurrence is associated with a random odds multiplier. The ball may also be replaced by a DIE which displays the prize multiplication factor (or odds multiplier).
Preferably, the feature of the present invention will be triggered by the occurrence of a special symbol or a combination of special symbols displayed in a particular arrangement. In the preferred embodiment the feature is triggered by a first special symbol appearing in the first (or left hand) column of the display and a second special symbol appearing in the last (or right hand) column of the display.
Preferably, the wild card symbol is first displayed at a location at one end of the display and is progressively moved from location to adjacent location until it has been displayed in each and every location of the display.